The trend toward on-line utilization of computers in recent years has included the emergence of computer support systems to fill the information processing needs of individuals engaged in scientific research. In this study, a new approach to document description is applied to the design of a personal information storage and retrieval system, AUTONOTE2. The system enables the user to: (1) define the topical content of each text items with phrasal descriptions, and (2) specify structural associations among the defined topics. A detailed discussion of both the design and implementation of AUTONOTE2 is provided, together with a case study of system performance during the description of a realistically diverse document collection. The results of the analyses suggest that the referential mechanisms used in the system constitute a viable alternative to keyword indexing in personal information systems. (Author/DGC)